SPS superintendent asks board not to extend contract

Springfield Public Schools Superintendent Norm Ridder has asked the SPS Board of Education not to extend his contract beyond its current boundaries.

Ridder, whose base salary for the 2012-13 school year is $159,333, is contracted to 2015, according to a news release.

Ridder said he made the request so he and his wife, Nadine, can plan for "the next phase of our lives."

Saying he respected Ridder's decision, SPS board President Tom Prater gave the superintendent his support.

"We certainly have some exciting projects on the drawing board and we are not ready for him to leave now, but I do get a feeling that the grandkids are coming into play," Prater said in the release.

Ridder has led the district since 2005, and played a role in proposing and campaigning for a $96.5 million bond initiative in 2006 and a $50 million bond initiative in 2009. Ridder, who was among Springfield Business Journal's inaugural class of Men of the Year in 2011, also faced a harsh audit from the state auditor's office last year and has helped the district make the appropriate changes, the release said.

In 2010, Ridder, a Nebraska native, was considered for the superintendent position at Lincoln Public Schools in Lincoln, Neb., according to SBJ archives.